Kayden's birth story

So... 2 weeks later I'm finally getting around to writing his birth story! Things have been a little crazy around here with visitors, and a baby that will not sleep at night unless you are holding him so it's been hard to post! But, right now he is asleep in the cradle so hopefully that's a good sign!

Thursday Sept. 9 I had my 38 week doctor appointment where I was 4-5 cm dilated and 100% effaced. When we got home from the appointment I started having back pain but didn't think anything of it. I had been having this back pain for quite a while and didn't think it could be contractions. However, Nick and I had already decided that we were going to go to the hospital after we ate with friends just to see if they would send us home or not since my doctor was there and pretty much said at my appointment that if I came in that night, she probably wouldn't send me home. So we went ahead and put the bags in the car and went out to eat with some friends. While we were eating my back started hurting a lot more and I decided yes we for sure would be going to the hospital after we ate.

Once we got to the hospital, I could tell that I was definitely experiencing contractions even though it was mostly in my back. They hooked me up to the monitors and watched what was going on for about an hour and the nurse came back in and said yep you're staying! We had gotten to the hospital at 9 p.m. and when they checked me I was 5 centimeters. They were pretty sure that was about what I was at at the doctor's office so they told me that they were going to wait until I had progressed more to give me the epidural... which didn't bother me at all because I really wasn't in that much pain at all. My contractions were not consistent and so I was able to go to sleep at about 12. I woke up at 3 and had to go to the bathroom and once I got back into bed, I started feeling a lot of pain. I called the nurse and she came in and checked me and I was at a 7. I then begged for the epidural and I was able to get that. After the whole epidural process the nurse checked me again and I was already at an 8.... thankful I was progressing fast.

However, during all of this my water still hadn't broken. The head was really low and they kept saying that once my water broke it would be no time at all. The delivery room was really busy that night (we actually bumped out an induction as I took the last delivery room they had.... i felt bad for that poor woman!) and they wanted to wait to see if my water would break on my own. They really thought it would be no time and that my water would break... however at 6 a.m. my water still hadn't broken and I was at 9.5 cm. The water had pushed the head back up a little bit which was a little frustrating but they said they still didn't think it would take me very long. They said once the water breaks I would be pushing right away.... yet they still wanted to see if it would break on its own. FRUSTRATING!

Finally at 8 a.m. my doctor came in and broke my water, which she even commented on how surprised she was that it hadn't broken on it's own. I started pushing right away. They didn't think that all of this would take me very long... so even though I commented about an hour earlier on how I was starting to feel my legs, they pretty much said it's too late for more epidural, leaving pushing to be a little painful. I continued to push but it took me a little while to really get the hang of it. They kept telling me to let them know when I was having a contraction but I really didn't know when I was having one. All I ever really felt was pain in my back and that was pretty constant so I didn't know when I was having a contraction. Finally, at around 9:10 my doctor came in and started helping. The nurse that was helping me throughout had only been in labor and delivery for like a week so once the doctor came in I was relieved... and I knew that since she was there, we must be getting pretty close. I continued to push and at that point I was done. It was getting so painful and I was exhausted.... I didn't know how people who had to push for 2+ hours did it... but I was so done. I kept repeating that I couldn't do it anymore and that I was done. It was hurting really badly and I just physically couldn't do it anymore. That's not exactly the way I wanted to be during delivery but I was physically exhausted and in pain. The doctor (mid pushing) said if i do an episiotomy she would be able to deliver the baby quicker and I screamed OK. She did the episiotomy and within 2 more pushes Kayden was here. All I remember was saying "thank god" whenever he came out... Nick said I didn't cry or anything. They cleaned him up real quick and then put him directly on my chest. It was a pretty amazing experience... but also pretty painful. However I wouldn't trade him for anything in the world. He was born at 9:19 a.m. so I really only pushed for an hour and nineteen minutes... but it was a long hour!! I couldn't imagine having to push any longer or having a bigger baby. He was only 6 lbs... and I can't imagine if he was any bigger! Thank goodness I went 2 weeks early!

My mom pretty much has all of the pictures that were taken right after his birth so once I get those I will post them :)

Kayden James

Kayden James Cooper is here! He was born Friday morning, September 10, 2010 at 9:19 a.m. and weighed 6 lbs even and was 18.5 inches long. He is precious as can be and I just can't get enough of him! I plan on posting the birth story soon so that I don't forget all the little details that I want to remember, but for right now.... I'm gonna go love on my little boy. Hope you enjoy the pictures though :)

Any Day Now!!

Well... we just got back from our doctor's appointment and I am 4 centimeters dilated and 100% effaced. The doctor said I was a ticking time bomb and if I was 39 weeks instead of 38 weeks she would have just sent me on to the hospital.... BOO!!! She is surprised that I have not really felt any strong contractions but she said she was on call tonight if I wanted to have a baby tonight... haha so we will see. Maybe I can muster up a few hard contractions and go to the hospital anyway! She also said she is surprised every week that I come back in and that hopefully I won't be at my next appointment! I was also told to not even bother with calling the office and to just go straight to the hospital. She said if I get any of the other doctor's they wouldn't know my "stats" and may tell me to stay at home longer but she doesn't want me to do that. She is expecting me to have a fast and easy labor so she doesn't want me to wait at all. She said to just go straight to the hospital and have the hospital call her. So we will see.... we're going for tonight or this weekend!

The Waiting Game...

Well the good news is that the blood pressure is back down. 114/62 or something like that.. i can't remember the exact numbers now because I was a little bummed. While I'm glad that my blood pressure is back down, I'm disappointed because I was ready to get this show on the road. I'm uncomfortable, and very done with being pregnant. If my child would grow outwards that would be great, but no he feels the need to grow upwards which is making me VERY uncomfortable. I do not have a large pertruding stomach, but at this point I think I would rather him go that way than up. Every day I feel feet pressing on my lungs causing me to not be able to breath. The only time I feel comfortable is laying flat, and it takes everything within me to go anywhere. I also don't sleep in our bed, I sleep on the couch. It's the only place I can get comfortable and actually sleep... which is annoying. I would much rather be sleeping in my bed, next to my husband rather than on the couch in my lonesome living room. Luckily, Skye walks back and forth between the bedroom and the living room throughout the night to keep me some company.
I did not get checked this week which was another let down. Her words "Since you were 2-3 last week I don't want to check you because I don't want to stir things up until next week at 38 weeks....." REALLY?! don't say that to a very uncomfortable (and hormonal) pregnant woman. I'm 37 weeks... full term... STIR THINGS UP DANG IT! I politely obliged, listened to the heartbeat and left. Not knowing whether I have dilated anymore is annoying and waiting another week sounds like forever! Luckily we ran into some friends as we were leaving the doctor's office which kept me from having an emotional break down at the thought of being pregnant another week and not knowing whether or not I have dilated anymore. Frustration has gotten the best of me as I swore I would not complain about being pregnant and being uncomfortable the last weeks. I mean really, it's 3 more weeks... but 3 VERYYYYY LONGGGGG WEEKSSSSS!

Blood Pressure Check

When I went into the doctor's office monday, I yet again had high blood pressure. This time it was 140/90 which was higher than it was on thursday. My doctor does not work on Mondays so they brought the nurse practitioner in. She wanted to put the baby on a fetal monitor and monitor his heart rate for 20 minutes to make sure that everything was fine with him even though I had high blood pressure. I laid there for 20 minutes just listening to his heart beat. Afterwards, she checked my blood pressure again and it was down to 126/60 and the baby's heartrate was fine throughout the whole thing. She said everything looked good with him but that obviously I needed to rest as much as possible and pretty much do nothing since that is when my blood pressure spikes. I also have to pee in this huge orange jug all day on wednesday and bring it to my appointment on thursday. DISGUSTING!! I am not looking forward to this but apparently it is to check for pre-eclampsia. I'll do it but i'm not happy about it! :) So there we have it. I pretty much sit around and do absolutely nothing until thursday, and hopefully thursday we would have made some progress. I am not feeling anything that feels like contractions so we will see. The doctor did say at the last appointment that with already dilating and being thinned i'm at a great spot if I need to be induced. Hopefully, even with my blood pressure down, she will decide to induce early. I will be really happy with that decision! :) So we will see what happens Thursday.... I feel like with me not being able to do anything but lay on the couch, this baby won't come at all. I was hoping to do a lot of walking this week and get this baby here but I can't.... so now i feel like he will never come!

eek!!!!

Well we just got back from the dr. office for our 36 week appointment and did we get a shocker. I normally have very low blood pressure, however this time it was high (for me) 130/90. She was a little concerned so I go back Monday to get it checked again. If it is high on Monday we start talking about option such as early inducement. (not the big shocker though....) We had an ultrasound and his head was very low to where we could not get an accurate measurement of his weight, however the one we did get was only about 5 lbs (it was 4 lbs and something ounces but closer to 5). This concerned her just a little bit because it puts him in the 12 percent tile for weight for the gestational age that I am at. She said at 10 % they raise an eyebrow and at 5% they do some serious investigating to see why he is so small. She said if i make it to 38 weeks they will do another ultrasound to see if he is still growing. We talk about all this stuff and then the appointment is over and she is walking us over to get some blood work and then says "have we done your group b strep test". No we havent, so we go back into the room to do that and she then proceeds to check me. I am 2-3 cm. dialated. HOLY COW! I start crying and freaking out, the dr is surprised and then we begin talking again. She says she does not expect me to go to my due date and that with his head so low she would not be surprised if it's within the next couple weeks. She said definitely if I go back on Monday and my blood pressure is still high we will most likely be induced sooner rather than later. Luckily, she said that she really thinks I will have an easy labor as his head is "right there" (her words not mine) and i'm already dialated that much. I seriously started crying when she told me all of this because I just suddenly got very overwhelmed. She had said throughout my pregnancy that she for some reason thought that I would have him early but now that we are this close and I have high blood pressure... just the fact that he will most likely be here within the next 2 weeks... i'm freaking out a little bit!

For now she wants to try to keep him in there at least another week since the measurement was so small but she said if I did go into labor she wasn't going to stop it. For now, I have to limit my salt intake, and do nothing and take it really easy (which I am sooo ok with.. except that there were still some cleaning things that I wanted to do but luckily my mom and a bunch of other people are more than happy to do that for me. )

yes.... i'm freaking out... :)

34 Week doctor appointment

Today I had my 34 week doctor appointment and it was so weird to go back so soon!!! I gained a lot more weight than I thought I would in 2 weeks, but that's ok. The nurse said that it was about time I started to gain some weight and that I still had more that I needed to gain so i'm not too concerned about it.

The doctor said that she knows everyone says I am little but everything is measuring just fine. She tried to find his head, and was pretty sure he was already head down but my stomach was so tight she wasn't sure. She has us having another ultrasound in 2 weeks just to verify everything. This has made me a little nervous just because I know you usually don't get an ultrasound at this point in the game but she didn't act really concerned so I'm just trying to be excited about the fact that I get to see him in 2 weeks. I hope the next 2 weeks fly by!!! I just want to know that everything is fine with my baby boy and see him again... even if it is on an ultrasound :)

The dresser finally came in yesterday so we have been busy putting all the last minute things together. Once the room is completely finished I will put up some new pictures of the progress.... right now all you see is a dresser which is pretty boring so I am waiting until we get the rest of the stuff up on the walls so you can see the whole complete thing :)

Yay for 34 weeks!!! only 6 weeks (or less :) ) to go!!!